Meet at
The Leadership Lodge
Your Company,
in Good Company
The Leadership Lodge is a space designed for teams and leaders to connect with each other and grow in their professional development. The setting supports focus, the tech supports flow, and the facilitation supports the outcomes. The Leadership Lodge promotes forward progress in all teams and leaders with humanity and humility at its core.
We’re a Meeting Venue with Purpose
Spaces That Inspire Collaboration
This isn’t just a meeting room. Your team works best when the environment sparks creativity, so whether it’s out on the deck, taking in the lake on a pontoon ride, a quiet night over the campfire, your team will think differently, connect deeply, and achieve real breakthroughs.
Facilitators Who Actually Know Their Stuff
We partner with top facilitators who bring proven expertise across countless companies in blue ocean strategy concepts, leadership development, experiential learning, and so much more. They guide your team through hands-on experiences that produce insight, alignment, and actionable results. Even the food is thoughtfully integrated into the experience.
A Team That Has Your Back
Our staff seamlessly helps you design, plan, and execute a productive and memorable experience for your group. But it’s not all work – you’ll have a lot of fun along the way. We take the time to understand your company culture and if we don’t know everyone’s name by the time you check out, we won’t be able to sleep that night.
Our Core Pillars
Every experience at The Leadership Lodge is built around six Core Pillars that guide leadership growth, team effectiveness, and cultural development before, during, and long after the retreat. These pillars shape how the experience is designed and how the work carries forward.
Building the Work that Shapes the Experience
These three pillars focus on what organizations build internally: leadership capacity, team strength, and cultural clarity.
Leadership begins with presence and self-awareness. When intention and action align, leadership becomes clear, steady, and effective.
Tools and practices may include:
- Leadership presence, mindfulness, and emotional intelligence
- 360-degree feedback, Insights Discovery®, and print assessments
- Framing and managing the narrative
- Flow, purpose, and personal alignment
- Powerful declarations and commitment-based management
- Coaching for accountability and follow-through
Teamwork strengthens relationships and improves how people work together. Shared experiences and clear expectations build alignment, momentum, and confidence.
Tools and practices may include:
- Getting to know one another and building trust
- Choice, ownership, and accountability
- Feedback grounded in assessments and performance
- Experiential and adventure-based learning
- Systems thinking and big-picture awareness
- Fun that builds connection and momentum
Culture is shaped by daily choices. Clear expectations and lived values build trust, alignment, and a shared path forward.
Tools and practices may include:
- Respect and shared accountability
- Framing expectations and standards
- Storytelling that reinforces values
- Purpose, values, and vision alignment
- A clear value proposition
Growing the Work That Gives the Experience Meaning
These pillars reflect what emerges when the work is done well: deeper connection, stronger collaboration, and better results.
Breaking down silos creates clearer connections. Shared purpose strengthens relationships and keeps the work relevant.
Focus areas may include:
- Self and team alignment
- Purpose, vision, values, and mission
- Customers, end users, and lived experience
- Culture and shared identity
- Storytelling that creates meaning
- Community and planet
Collaboration builds momentum when teams honor commitments and understand how their systems work.
Focus areas may include:
- High-performing teams and shared accountability
- Systems thinking and organizational alignment
- Navigating assessments with clarity
- Managing commitments with intention
- Managing mood and team energy
Outcomes take shape when organizations learn continuously, align beliefs with action, and direct energy with intention.
Focus areas may include:
- Being a learning organization that supports innovation
- Greater efficiency with less waste
- BEL-OAR frameworks to clarify beliefs and behavior
- Productive moods and shared esprit that sustain momentum
- Accountability and confidence in change management
Types of Retreats
Custom Corporate Retreats
Less awkward icebreakers. More breakthroughs.
Every detail of your retreat is designed around your goals. Whether it’s strategic planning, leadership development, onboarding, or board integration, you’ll have a retreat that’s fully customized to deliver real outcomes. You’ll leave with clear action steps, aligned teams, and a renewed focus on what matters most.
Open Enrollment Programs
Less leadership theory. More “why didn’t anyone teach me this sooner?”
Step into multi-weekend leadership experiences that push you to grow personally and professionally. With guidance from industry-leading facilitators, you’ll gain tools and insights to drive performance, lead others effectively, and transform how you show up. Whether you’re a new or seasoned leader, these retreats give you a chance to stretch, learn, and return with real impact.
Team Building & Bonding Activities
Less cringe. More cohesion.
Your team will tackle challenges that stretch them beyond their comfort zones, without any cheesy trust falls, axe throwing, or scavenger hunts designed by and for teenagers. Each activity is carefully crafted by leadership and experiential learning experts with degrees and years of experience in their fields, so your team leaves more connected, confident, and capable of working together at a higher level.
What Organizations Say About Our Custom Retreats
“We have been bringing business groups to Sugar Lake Lodge for over 20 years. While they keep innovating and changing and continuously improving what they do and how they do it, their hospitality and feel has remained unchanged.
Every time we walk through that door, our groups feel welcome and part of the family. It’s a place where groups get closer and friendship happens.”
– Jenny Munyer & Allie Hancock, Minnesota Chamber Leadership Team
Invest in Your Best
Whether you have a facilitator that you love to work with, want our team to plan everything for you, or are looking to partner with one of our world-class strategic planning and leadership development partners, you’ll find success at Sugar Lake.